Modern data centers make use of warehouse like buildings which aggregate hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of computing servers and storage within a single facility. The computing servers are located together in a single facility to facilitate quick communications between the devices and to make it easier to monitor and maintain the devices. These facilities are often connected to long distance networks, such as the Internet, and to other data center facilities. This access is done through interconnection of service provider networks at private and public interconnection points, such as Internet exchanges located in various geographic aggregation points across the world. Internally, data centers use cabling that permits each server to send and receive packets to upstream switches. Typically, data centers that manage large-scale cloud computing services are centrally managed using one or more management systems and controllers.
The large number of computing servers within data centers generate significant levels of heat, often requiring expensive, dedicated cooling systems. Further, the electrical power of such data centers place significant demands for very high power electrical grid systems to power them and redundant power sources are required to ensure that local power outages do not disrupt data center workloads. While much research and development has gone into improving the efficiency of data center systems, the cooling and power requirements continue to impose significant burdens on data center design, deployment, and management.
Systems used to provide communication and network access services to homes and other premises face entirely different challenges than those plaguing modern data centers. Optical fiber-based networks are being built to provide high-speed Internet access to consumers. These networks use optical fibers to link a central office switching center and broadband gateways located at the consumer premises. Such a network has the potential to provide gigabit or faster Internet access, among other access services. These fiber optic access networks are commonly referred to as fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber-to-the-building (FTTB), or fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), and are referred to herein collectively as “fiber-based” networks.
The rate at which these fiber-based networks are being built has been slow. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been discouraged by the costs of building these networks and are often discouraged by concerns over how quickly they can earn back a profitable return. Additionally, where fiber-based networks have been implemented for consumer network access, the fiber-based network have employed a slower and cheaper point-to-multi-point architecture rather than the faster and more expensive point-to-point technique, since many consumers are unwilling to pay the differential costs for the faster technique.